AutoFS - cp command issue

[David Nixon]

Hello,
I have been running the Enhanced AutoFS
product under HP-UX 11.11, patched to PHNE_33498.
There seems to be an issue with copying files
to an automounted directory when the copy target has not already been mounted.
The copy operation fails; with target not found, unless the directory is first listed by 'ls'.
Trace of 'automountd' shows the 'cp' command
generating NFS lookups on the directory - but no subsequent mount request.
Since my maps are indirect, all directories
are browseable before mounting, but switching
this facility off did not change things..
AutoFS bug or misconfiguration ? Any
suggestions or opinions would be welcome.

David.

[Dave Olker]

Hi David,

Please provide a detailed set of your AutoFS maps and a step-by-step set of duplication instructions and I'll try this on my 11.11 system running Enhanced AutoFS.

Dave

[David Nixon]

Dave,

Here are my automount maps and
some commands that access targets from
the net map; including the wildcard case.

Dave.

[Dave Olker · Accepted solution]

Hi David,

Well, this was an interesting one. It took me a while to get to the bottom of it (or at least what I think is the bottom).

I first tried this set of reproduction steps on my 11i v2 system and confirmed that things work properly on that system.

I then tried the same maps/commands on my 11.11 system and reproduced the failure you reported. This really surprised me as I couldn't imagine shipping the Enhanced AutoFS with such a glaring defect.

I then tried another 11.11 system that didn't have the Enhanced AutoFS installed (it is using the old ONC 1.2 AutoFS) and found that system didn't reproduce the problem. I then installed the latest Enhanced AutoFS on the working 11.11 system to see if it would cause it to start failing. To my surprise, that system continued to work properly even with the newer AutoFS installed.

So now I had two 11.11 systems with the same version of Enhanced AutoFS installed - one that reproduced the problem and one that wouldn't.

I checked to see if the "working" system had any patches installed that would change the cp(1) binary. It did - PHCO_32276. I downloaded and installed this patch on the "failing" system and suddenly it became a "working" system.

My recommendation is to install PHCO_32276 on your 11.11 system and see if this resolves your AutoFS problem.

Regards,

Dave

[Devender Khatana]

Hi,

This is a known issue and the patch mentioned is the fix for it. We had the similar issues some time back and were fixed with the mentioned patch number.

HTH,
Devender

[David Nixon]

Thanks for that cp patch recommendation Dave.
PHCO_32276 has fixed my problem.

Though,after reading the patch documentation, I'm
still unclear as to the reasons
for cp's unexpected behaviour with Enhanced AutoFS.

[David Nixon]

Solution found.